com·plaint

complaint

chief complaint the symptom or group of symptoms about which the patient first consults the doctor; the presenting symptom.

complaint

(kəm-plānt′)

n.

a. A bodily disorder or disease; a malady or ailment.

b. The symptom or distress about which a patient seeks medical assistance.

complaint

Etymology: L, complangere, to beat the breast

1 (in law) a pleading by a plaintiff made under oath to initiate a suit. It is a statement of the formal charge and the cause for action against the defendant. For a minor offense the defendant is tried on the basis of the complaint. A more serious felony prosecution requires an indictment with evidence presented by a state's attorney.

2

Usage notes: (informal)

any ailment, problem, or symptom identified by the client, patient, member of the person's family, or other knowledgeable person. The chief complaint often causes the person to seek health care.

A symptom of which a person is aware or which causes discomfort, generally described from a patient’s perspective—e.g., loss of weight, crushing chest pain, fever of unknown origin (FUO)—and which is often the principal reason for seeking medical attention; in the working parlance in the US, complaints are divided into chief—major—complaints and minor complaints

complaint

A Sx of which a person is aware or which causes discomfort, generally described from a Pt's perspective–eg, loss of weight, crushing chest pain, FUO, and is often the principal reason for seeking medical attention; in the working parlance in the US, complaints are divided into chief–major complaints and minor complaints. See Chief complaint, Minor complaint.

com·plaint

(kŏm-plānt')

A disorder, disease, or symptom, or the description of it.

[O.Fr. complainte, fr. L. complango, to lament]

complaint,

n a patient-described symptom, problem, or malady. See also illness and disease.

com·plaint

(kŏm-plānt')

A disorder, disease, or symptom, or the description of it.

[O.Fr. complainte, fr. L. complango, to lament]

complaint,

n an ailment, problem, or symptom disclosed by the patient.

complaint, chief (CC),

n the main symptom or reason for which the patient seeks treatment. The most troublesome ailment, problem, or symptom.

So, he got into his place, still making complaints, and the keeper got into the place next him, and the convicts hauled themselves up as well as they could, and the convict I had recognized sat behind me with his breath on the hair of my head.

As politics becomes less of a game and more of a responsibility, the telephone of the future will doubtless be supervised by some sort of public committee, which will have power to pass upon complaints, and to prevent the nuisance of duplication and the swindle of watering stock.

When he had finished the letter, Don Quixote said, "There is less to be gathered from this than from the verses, except that he who wrote it is some rejected lover;" and turning over nearly all the pages of the book he found more verses and letters, some of which he could read, while others he could not; but they were all made up of complaints, laments, misgivings, desires and aversions, favours and rejections, some rapturous, some doleful.

Complaints are everywhere heard from our most considerate and virtuous citizens, equally the friends of public and private faith, and of public and personal liberty, that our governments are too unstable, that the public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties, and that measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority.

He has been standing off and on in the door-yard for the matter of a glass; and he has summat on his mind that he wants to heave up, d’ye see; but I tells him, says I, man, would you be coming aboard with your complaints, said I, when the judge has gotten his own child, as it were, out of the jaws of a lion?

All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.